Twilight: A Feminist Nightmare

Ok, I will admit it. I haven't seen any of the Twilight movies. Nor have I read any of the books. But what I do know about it is that it has attracted millions of young, female fans. Based on this fact alone, I feel the need to take a closer look.

I got my start in feminist organizing when I helped coordinate a voter registration drive during the Sex and the City Movie premieres in 2008, where with the help of Mobilize.org, we registered 10,000 women to vote. While Sex and the City certainly has its narrative flaws, I found that it helped many more women than it hurt by displaying the challenges of being a single mother, a career woman, being infertile, and many other difficult moments that millions of women experience. I also believe that it was the best sex education young women have had in the past decade; it made it okay for women to talk about sex, have sex and break out of the puritanical expectations of society. Sex and the City was the last big movie I can think of which drew in women from all over the world -- until Twilight came to the big screen.

Even without seeing the movies or reading the book, the Twilight narrative really disturbs me. From what I know about it, it is a story of a predatory vampire who essentially stalks a young woman named Bella. Their relationship turns into a reckless romantic escapade and Bella ends up losing every sense of herself, becoming solely concerned with giving herself to this 100-year-old vampire dressed up in a 17-year-old boy's body.

Apparently, I'm not alone in my concerns. University of Victoria professor Janni Aragon is also warning parents and young Twilight fans that the series doesn't depict healthy relationships between the sexes.

Aragon says that while she, a grown woman, understands the difference between fact and escapist fiction, the distinction might be lost on some of the young audience for the book and movie series. This is the main problem with Twilight for me. I'm afraid that this fiction will become fact for millions of young women influenced by the standards of subordination and stalking going on in the movie and books.

As Amplify points out, the curious thing about the Twilight series is that it features a female protagonist and was written and directed by women. So why do I feel like this movie perpetuates archaic stereotypes that serve to bring society backwards, not forwards, when it comes to how young women proceed in their lives and personal relationships?

With the release of the latest Twilight movie, "New Moon" I am compelled to ask women everywhere, "Why do you watch and read this story? Do you think it is regressive in terms of how it represents women?"

Photo credit: Screencave